Chinese High End Handmade Tool. Give Suggestions!

[Davi]

zhaohan some more details would be great. Pictures, makes and prices would be a great start

[Trox]

I live in Japan and I had the same problem finding top-shelf left-handed knives.

I eventually found a traditional Japanese blacksmith who specializes in high-end woodcarving tools but also makes a mean leather knife. I had him make me a knife that's symettrical in shape (3rd from the right in the picture) so it can be used with both hands. Even though it's made from scratch, it only cost about 70 bucks and is very solid with an edge that keeps very well.

If you're interested, I can give you his info (not sure if he speaks English) or could even have him make one for you when I order more tools from him.

He has a facebook page too:https://m.facebook.com/pages/小倉彫刻刃物製作所/562663520411785

Just by looking at the picture I can tell you: To thick a handle and to short a blade for a skiving knife. You would not be able to get the proper angle on the edge. The handle will hit the grind stone before you achieve the right angle on the edge!

Tor

[rickdroid]

Just by looking at the picture I can tell you: To thick a handle and to short a blade for a skiving knife. You would not be able to get the proper angle on the edge. The handle will hit the grind stone before you achieve the right angle on the edge!

Tor

The knife shown on the left of the facebook page is a common skiving knife available through goodsjapan. I paid about

$40.00 for mine. It is not a custom made knife. It actually is a pretty good knife for skiving. It is not as clunky as the pictures suggest. It holds an edge ok and is easy to sharpen.

rick

[krominix]

Also interested in his edgers. Will his #1 bevel 2oz ?

Edited April 29, 2016 by krominix

[simontuntelder]

On 9. februar 2016 at 5:01 AM, victorl said:

I live in the Tokyo area and there are a lot of places that sell leathercraft goods... you've got the major distributors like CraftSha, Seiwa and Kyoshin Elle, and plenty of smaller distributors as well. They're mostly concentrated in the Asakusabashi area in Eastern Tokyo. I regularly shop at a leathercraft store called Takara Sangyo and if you like, we could go together sometime and you can use my member's card to get 20% off everything in the store.

For knives, Iwataya is amazing and for top-of-the-line stuff to drool over, you should give Kanesoh in Asakusa a visit (www.kanesoh.com).

Cheers,

Vic

Hi Vic, do you have any experience with Iwataya pricking irons?

I have yet to try them out, which I'm very eager to. However I hear that they're hard to come by.

[Bobbin]

This thread has been super helpful to me. I'm currently in the process of picking up some of the irons mentioned here.

I would love a recommendation for an awl: one that is slim enough not to spoil the slim, flat "European Style" holes made by the Amy Roke, CMDAChong, Myleathertool, etc pricking irons.

In my research, it looks like Vergez Blanchard irons are so far the best bet I've seen for fine leather work. They are of course slim to match VB pricking marks. Would need to get them sharpened. I've read a lot about Douglas Slim Awls, but have seen that even those are not as fine/slim as the VB Awls. Of the standard recommendations: Barry King, Osborne, etc, I am not aware of Awls as slim as VB for fine leather work.

Any recommendation for slim, preferably pre-sharpened & polished "European Style" Awls for fine leather work on thinner, smaller leather items? It would be also nice to have matching round awl and scratch awl to go with. (So far, I have contacted CMDAChong if he has these, still waiting to hear back.) Thanks!

[simontuntelder]

Regarding awls you would want to modify, sharpen and polish those yourself most likely. But you could ask Cmdachong, if you could buy a pre polished awl from her - I've never tried them.

For fun I bought a Bob Douglas slim awl just before Sheridan closed their doors. And that awl is by no standard slim and if you practice a bit you'll notice that you can make a better awl yourself. At least I realized that my awls were sharper when I received the Douglas awl.

 

Good luck it's lots of fun, but maybe buy an extra awl, as it's pretty easy ruining it.

[Bobbin]

On June 23, 2016 at 11:30 PM, simontuntelder said:

Regarding awls you would want to modify, sharpen and polish those yourself most likely. But you could ask Cmdachong, if you could buy a pre polished awl from her - I've never tried them.

For fun I bought a Bob Douglas slim awl just before Sheridan closed their doors. And that awl is by no standard slim and if you practice a bit you'll notice that you can make a better awl yourself. At least I realized that my awls were sharper when I received the Douglas awl.

 

Good luck it's lots of fun, but maybe buy an extra awl, as it's pretty easy ruining it.

Thanks for the recommendation to customize. After researching more, I'm getting the same advice. I asked Peter Nitz about his awls he posted recently on IG, and yup, he makes them himself to suit his needs.

What is the best way to customize an awl? For example, for fine work, would I just buy the small VB awls because they are the closest, then work on them with whetstones, then polish, etc?

[simontuntelder]

I would buy a couple of Blanchard awls - in the size you think will work for you.

First of all try polishing the awl on some sort of abrasive material (whetstone, diamond stone, ceramic stone, wet/dry paper) - once you've mastered getting the awl super sharp, you can move onto modifying the awl.

Basically you can cut of a bit of the tip and grind of some of the back - thus creating a more oval shape compared to a diamond shape with a less pointed tip.

 

You can order awls other places than Blanchard. Their awls a alright, but a bit expensive. Look around and see what you can find - just don't opt for Tandy/Ivan 

[simontuntelder]

Have any of you bought any of these high end Chinese tools recently?

and if so would you care to share your experiences?

One thing I'm especially interested in right now is edgers by Mason / CMdachong.

 

I tried a set of pricking irons - bought through Muxi Lu and they performed quite well, but the size of the handle didn't fit my hands as nicely as Blanchard, so I passed them onto a friend of mine. But they looked nowhere near as nice as Amy Roke/Yidao irons, which I haven't handled, but enough people who's opinion I trust, has recommended them.

I've also seen the user Yangtools on Instagram who appears to be making a very nice awl - and a French edge skiver. Plus he's basically also copying DolDokki, which is very understandable, as they're beautiful.